Gavin arrived at my father's house forty minutes later.
Brenda was not with him.
Ethan was.
That part had been my decision.
After calling Gavin, I called Ethan.
I told him enough to explain why I did not want to handle the conversation alone.
He arrived first.
He did not ask whether I wanted him to speak.
He sat beside me at the kitchen table and waited.
When Gavin entered, he saw Ethan and stopped.
For a second, the old tension returned.
Then he seemed to understand.
“Good.”
Ethan raised an eyebrow.
“Good?”
“If this is what I think it is, Nora shouldn't be alone with it.”
I looked between them.
“Can both of you avoid turning this into a strange alliance?”
Ethan leaned back.
“No promises.”
Gavin almost smiled.
My father remained quiet.
The letter lay in the center of the table.
Gavin read it twice.
When he finished, he looked older than he had forty minutes earlier.
“Marcus.”
I folded my arms.
“Start talking.”
Gavin rubbed his hands together.
“Marcus Vale helped start the company.”
“With you?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Eight years.”
“What happened?”
“We grew too fast.”
“That is not an answer.”
He nodded.
“Marcus controlled financing. I controlled sales and operations.”
“And?”
“We borrowed against future contracts.”
Ethan spoke.
“That can become dangerous quickly.”
Gavin looked at him.
“It did.”
“What kind of contracts?” I asked.
“Municipal systems. Hospital networks. Regional infrastructure.”
I frowned.
“Large deals.”
“Very.”
“And when the cash dried up?”
“We started using bridge financing.”
“From banks?”
“At first.”
Gavin looked down.
“Later, private lenders.”
My father finally spoke.
“That explains the guarantees.”
Gavin nodded.
“Marcus arranged most of them.”
“And you signed?”
“Yes.”
Dad shook his head.
“What collateral?”
“Everything.”
I stared at Gavin.
“Everything?”
“My equity. Receivables. Some personal assets.”
“Our money?”
“Indirectly.”
My jaw tightened.
“Nora,” Ethan said softly.
I knew what he meant.
One fact at a time.
I breathed.
“What did Marcus do?”
“Toward the end, money started disappearing.”
“How much?”
Gavin hesitated.
“Several hundred thousand.”
My father swore under his breath.
I had rarely heard him swear in my entire life.
“From where?” Ethan asked.
“Company accounts.”
“Into Marcus's?”
“That was what I believed.”
“Believed?”
Gavin looked at my mother's letter.
“Some transfers went through accounts he controlled.”
“Like the one Mom found.”
“Possibly.”
“Did she know Marcus?”
“No.”
“Then why write his name?”
“She must have traced the destination.”
Dad shook his head.
“She was better at this than I thought.”
I almost laughed.
That was an understatement.
My mother had worked as an elementary school librarian.
Apparently she had also conducted a private financial investigation while I was falling apart.
“Marcus accused you of stealing from him,” I said.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“After I forced him out.”
“You fired him?”
“I bought back his shares.”
“With what money?”
“Borrowed money.”
Ethan gave Gavin a look.
“You really did like debt.”
“I was arrogant.”
The bluntness stopped us.
He continued.
“I thought revenue would solve everything. Every time we needed cash, I assumed the next contract would fix it.”
“That sounds familiar,” I said.
“Yes.”
No argument.
“What happened after Marcus left?”
“He sued.”
“For what?”
“Breach of contract. Misappropriation. Fraud.”
My father leaned forward.
“Fraud?”
“He claimed I diverted company funds.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
The answer was immediate.
I studied him.
Years ago I would have struggled to know whether to believe him.
Now I asked a different question.
“Can you prove it?”
“Not completely.”
“That matters.”
“I know.”
He looked at Ethan.
“Marcus kept records outside the company.”
“How do you know?”
“After he died, his sister contacted me.”
“What did she want?”
“She said Marcus had left boxes.”
“Financial files?”
“Yes.”
“Did you get them?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Gavin laughed bitterly.
“Because I told her I never wanted to hear his name again.”
I stared.
“You refused evidence?”
“I thought the lawsuit was over.”
“How?”
“Settlement.”
“With his estate?”
“No. Before he died.”
“For how much?”
“Confidential.”
I leaned forward.
“Gavin.”
“Three hundred twenty thousand.”
My father exhaled slowly.
“You paid a man you say stole from you three hundred twenty thousand?”
“The insurance company paid most.”
“Why settle?”
“Because litigation would have destroyed the company.”
Ethan nodded slightly.
“That part is plausible.”
Gavin glanced at him.
“Thank you.”
“That isn't endorsement.”
“I know.”
I pointed toward my mother's letter.
“What exactly did Marcus accuse you of stealing?”
“Client payments.”
“Specific ones?”
“Yes.”
“Which?”
He hesitated.
Then named three clients.
My father sat upright.
“Say the second one again.”
Gavin did.
Dad stood.
“What?”
He left the kitchen again.
This time he returned with a yellow legal pad.
“I remember that name.”
“From where?”
“Your mother's notes.”
He flipped pages.
“She had copied something.”
He found it.
A company name.
A date.
An amount.
Forty-seven thousand dollars.
Gavin stood.
“Where did she get that?”
“I don't know.”
He pulled out his phone.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Checking something.”
He searched.
Then froze.
“What?”
“That payment was part of Marcus's lawsuit.”
The air changed.
Ethan stood.
“How much did he claim was diverted?”
“Forty-seven thousand.”
Dad pushed the legal pad toward him.
“That's what Ellen wrote.”
Hearing my mother's name aloud made my chest ache.
Gavin stared at the paper.
“If Nora’s mother knew about this…”
“She knew more than any of us realized,” Dad said.
I looked at the notes.
My mother's handwriting.
Dates.
Amounts.
Initials.
Then one entry near the bottom.
M.V. says G. doesn't know.
I read it twice.
“What is this?”
Gavin leaned closer.
His face went white.
“Marcus talked to her.”
“What?”
“That's what this means.”
“You don't know that.”
“Those are our initials.”
“Could be something else.”
But none of us believed that.
Dad sat slowly.
“She never told me.”
I looked at him.
“You're sure?”
“I would remember.”
Gavin paced once across the kitchen.
“Why would Marcus contact your mother?”
“Maybe she contacted him.”
“How would she know who he was?”
Nobody answered.
Then Ethan picked up the letter.
“What's the exact wording?”
I read the relevant paragraph again.
I found another account while tracing the money. It belonged to a man named Marcus Vale, though I am no longer certain he was the person controlling it.
Ethan looked at Gavin.
“Did Marcus have access to the account?”
“Yes.”
“Who else?”
“I don't know.”
“Find out.”
“I can try.”
“No,” I said.
All three men looked at me.
I was suddenly furious.
Not at one person.
At all of them.
At Gavin.
At my parents.
At Marcus.
At six years of decisions being made around me.
“My marriage falls apart. Money disappears. My mother secretly negotiates with my husband. My father hides an account. A dead business partner apparently contacts my mother. And now everyone wants to start another investigation.”
I stood.
“This stops being about me unless I decide otherwise.”
Ethan immediately nodded.
“You're right.”
My father looked down.
Gavin remained still.
I continued.
“If we're doing this, there are rules.”
“Okay,” Gavin said.
“Everything comes to me.”
“Yes.”
“No private conversations about my finances.”
“Yes.”
“No deciding what I can handle.”
“Yes.”
I looked at Dad.
He swallowed.
“Yes.”
“And no contacting Marcus's family until we know what we actually have.”
Gavin hesitated.
“Nora—”
“No.”
“If his sister has the files—”
“Then they have sat there four years. Another day won't destroy them.”
He nodded.
“Fine.”
Ethan touched my shoulder.
“What do you want to do now?”
I looked at my mother's letter.
“I want to know why she wrote that she wasn't sure Marcus controlled the account.”
Gavin frowned.
“There should be signature records.”
“For an account that old?”
“Maybe.”
“Get them.”
“I will.”
My father lifted the yellow pad.
“What about these?”
“Copy every page.”
He nodded.
“Tonight.”
“No.”
He looked confused.
“Tomorrow.”
“Why?”
“Because we're all exhausted.”
I looked at Gavin.
“And exhausted people make stupid decisions.”
He gave a rueful smile.
“I have some experience there.”
That almost made me smile back.
Almost.
An hour later, Gavin left.
Ethan and I drove home.
Lily was spending the night with Ethan’s sister, which meant the house was unusually silent.
I kicked off my shoes in the kitchen.
Ethan poured two glasses of water.
“You want to talk?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
“I want to talk.”
He smiled.
“I suspected.”
I sat at the counter.
“Am I making this bigger than it is?”
“No.”
“Maybe Mom just got obsessed.”
“Possible.”
“Maybe Marcus lied to her.”
“Possible.”
“Maybe Gavin is still lying.”
Ethan considered that.
“Possible.”
I looked at him.
“You're very helpful.”
“You asked possibilities.”
“What do you think?”
He leaned against the counter.
“I think your mother found something she believed was serious enough to investigate.”
“And?”
“I think Gavin doesn't understand his own financial history as well as he thought.”
“That isn't comforting.”
“No.”
He took my hand.
“And I think you are allowed to stop whenever you want.”
I stared at our hands.
“Do you think I should?”
He shook his head.
“That's not my decision.”
There it was again.
The difference.
I leaned against him.
For several minutes, we stood silently in the kitchen.
Then my phone rang.
Gavin.
I answered.
“What?”
“I found the account authorization records.”
“That was fast.”
“My attorney had archived copies from the lawsuit.”
I straightened.
“And?”
“There were two authorized signers.”
“Marcus?”
“Yes.”
“Who else?”
Silence.
“Gavin.”
His voice sounded hollow.
“Brenda.”
I closed my eyes.
Ethan saw my face change.
“What?”
I held up one finger.
“Say that again.”
“Brenda had authorization on Marcus's account.”
“That makes no sense.”
“I know.”
“She didn't work for your company.”
“No.”
“Why would she have access?”
“I don't know.”
“Ask her.”
“I already did.”
“And?”
Another silence.
Then Gavin said the sentence that changed everything.
“She packed a bag and left the house.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 8: Brenda’s Sudden Disappearance Forced Gavin to Question the Affair He Built His New Life Around, While I Found My Mother’s Final Warning
Five Years After Gavin Left Me Behind, One Wedding Put Us Face-to-Face With the Lives We Had Chosen
Part 7 of 35
